Selfies, sexting, Lorde and the Spider Dog

Herald on Sunday

20 Dec, 2014 04:00 PM4 mins to read

Lorde, Michelle Obama and Aaron Smith

From sexting sports stars to civil rights, social media was a force for the absurd and the sublime this year.

From All Blacks posting naked selfies - hashtag what were you thinking Aaron? - to powerful awakenings of collective consciousness, social media users shared millions of their thoughts and experiences through Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook this year.

Celebrities committing faux pas was on the decline during the year, according to some social media observers, as they wised up to the pitfalls of social media.

But there were still a few clangers.

Blockbusting Warriors centre Konrad Hurrell was fined $5000 after a sextape emerged with him and actress Teuila Blakely.

Hashtags such as #bringbackourgirls showed how social media can bring positive ideas together. Similarly, this week the #illridewithyou in response to a possible backlash against Muslims after the Sydney siege mobilised goodwill, even as the woman who inspired the campaign later admitted her story was not entirely true.

In the United States, the #icantbreathe and #handsupdontshoot campaigns brought millions together after the police officers were cleared over the deaths of two unarmed black men, Eric Garner and Michael Brown.

"Frozen"

Elsewhere in the virtual world, we continued our obsession with singing sensation Lorde, we embraced the most tweeted selfie from the Oscars, every parent knows the words to songs from Disney's Frozen and we obsessed over a giant mutant spider dog.

We mourned Robin Williams, became fascinated by Jennifer Lawrence, fell in love with football (at least until the next World Cup) and wanted to know everything about Gallipoli.

Robin Williams. Photo / Dan Steinberg / Invision / AP

The splintering of social media during the year saw even more simplified forms of communication emerge - and gave a hint to what next year might hold in store.

Twitter's 140 characters was shortened to just two when the "Yo" smartphone app was launched in June.

More of an "alert" than a conversation, users can set up "Yo" to receive notifications when their football team scores a goal or their girlfriend is waiting.

"It might be a bit of a pisstake, but it got venture capital thrown at it," said Jeremy Marks, from Auckland social media agency Mosh.

Yo claims to have 15,000 users in New Zealand and has sparked a few imitators. This month Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul launched his own "Yo B*h" app, based on his character Jessie Pinkman's best-known phrase.

One thing is for sure, social media is here to stay.

Google's head of communications for Australia and New Zealand Annie Baxter told the Herald on Sunday parents needed to keep up with the new trends in social media use to keep their children safe.

"Young people are finding new apps all the time. They're connecting with different networks in different ways, from school friends to family to workmates.

"If you know what these things are, you can at least have a conversation with their children about them."